Apparently the Rams are offering $100,000 to the person who
perfectly picks their upcoming schedule. One glaring difference between
this contest and the billion dollar bracket challenge is that I suppose we’re
supposed to take it on faith that the Rams aren’t going to look at all of the
submissions and then just pick a schedule that doesn’t match up with any of
them. No mention of a suitcase locked away at the HQ of
Price-Waterhouse-Coopers is what I’m saying.
That said, this article over at Slate says it’s
practically impossible to do. Therefore, I submitted a guess.
Even though past performance is not an indicator of future
success (as they say when buying stocks), I looked at schedules past. I noticed
that, since 2002 (the year the Super Bowl Championship Seattle Seahawks joined
the NFC West), the Rams have had five week-9 bye weeks, followed by three
week-5 bye weeks. Last year the bye week was during week 11, so I went with
week 9 again. I also noticed that they’ve played Philly week one, twice, and
tend to play a fellow NFC West opponent week 4, as well as typically end the
season against a divisional rival. Considering the Super Bowl Championship Seattle
Seahawks and San Francisco feud, I figured the Rams would be playing Arizona. I
also made sure not to have more than two away or two home games in a row.
And my biggest guess of all? Taking a chance that the Rams
will play the Super Bowl Championship Seattle Seahawks on Monday night again in
week 8. Probably should have made that a Sunday night game, now that I think of
it. Oh well.